OCT. 17 | First-day sales of Warner Home Video's highly anticipated second installment of The Matrix trilogy sold about 4 million combined DVD and VHS units, according to industry sources, and exceeded the expectations of some big-box retailers.

Best Buy officials projected The Matrix Reloaded to be their biggest DVD seller ever and were not disappointed.

"We've had an unprecedented response from our core consumers," said Best Buy senior VP of entertainment Gary Arnold. "It aligns very well with Best Buy's core consumer, which is a young male interested in technology. For us, this is probably as big as it gets for the Christmas season."

Best Buy was selling Reloaded in stores on DVD only for $14.99--about half the $29.95 MSRP for the title. The chain, which is no longer carrying new releases in VHS, had the Reloaded videocassette on the Best Buy Web site for $17.99. Best Buy rival Circuit City was also selling the DVD for $14.99. Blockbuster had it on its Web site for $22.99.

Remember when this movie came out - immediately after it hit theatres - on pirated DVDs and SVCDs? And there was a scandal... now not only that it's the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, it also sets a record in sales... hmmm... could it be that piracy actually elevates sales for GOOD movies (or at least popular), while it only contributes to the quick downfall of bad movies? Food for thought.

I saw the same at my local Best Buy. With as many copies as they had there was a lot of empty shelf space that, as I was walking to get it, was being filled by the employees. I looked at all the copies they were using to fill the shelves and a majority were fullscreen. I asked the guy and he gave me the widescreen but said they were almost gone...hence the abundance of fullscreen. Whether they hardly got any widescreen or just displayed all the widescreen and very little fullscreen he did not know.

I know for a fact that they had more widescreen than fullscreen shipments. They simply sold more widescreens than fullscreens - which is great news, more people are buying widescreen!!!! But this sucks, because the other people (who are unaware of the difference) who want the movie are left with no choice but to buy fullscreen.... they don't even get a choice!

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Originally posted by mackace23 Too bad about the 4 mil that bought this movie....one of the worst of seen in along time and one of the worst sequels ever!@

wait a second... You mean people didn't like this film? Amazing, from all the forums I read about this I haven't ever seen anyone ever post anything bad about the film. Wow. I think people praised the rave scene for it's nice... um.. dance number. yeah. Amazing, you should tell us more about how some didn't like it. I have never heard of it.......

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Originally posted by Michael Corvin I'm more curious about the break between DVD and VHS in that 4 million.

My thoughts exactly . . .

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Originally posted by Playitagainsam Remember when this movie came out - immediately after it hit theatres - on pirated DVDs and SVCDs? And there was a scandal... now not only that it's the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, it also sets a record in sales... hmmm... could it be that piracy actually elevates sales for GOOD movies (or at least popular), while it only contributes to the quick downfall of bad movies? Food for thought.

If the pirated DVD were of the same quality as the ones released by the studios, I would bet that most people would not go buy the DVD when it hit the market (unless they wanted the extras).

That is what has happened to the music industry. Why buy something that is already the same quality (or atleast good enough).

Now, what I would like to see is the priced dropped for movie tickets, $50 (tickets, food and drink) to take your whole family is crazy.

If Reloaded sales 10 million copies over the next 6 months, and the studio makes about 7 a copy, then that is an extra 70 million in thier pockets. But, as long as we are willing to pay the higher prices, they will continue to raise the ticket prices year after year.

Okay, I've bought plenty of bootlegged movies on DVD and VCD (having been in places like Korea and Kuwait) because I could not get to theaters showing them. And you know what?
I still bought the frickin' DVD later!